Cornell vs. St. John's Men's BB Roll Call

[Al DeFlorio]

Simply great job by Donahue to really change the approach in the second half.

When they're "in your shirts," you have to take it inside, and Cornell finally did in the second half.  Great win.

UMass, by the way, knocked off Memphis the other night.

[billhoward]

Great win!  You can't count on a guy like Jaques suddenly getting hot, but when it's there it's there and they made it work.  Great team ball, better rebounding in the 2nd half, and POISE.  This is a team that knows how to win the close games - near-collapse last night notwithstanding. The powers that be would never let it happen, but the preconference "body of work" of CU and Sucks makes a good case for a two-bid Ivy this year.

Which I don't believe has ever happened, even when Penn and Princeton were both good. Tommy Amaker already has the wardrobe for national TV.

[mnagowski]

Great win!  You can't count on a guy like Jaques suddenly getting hot, but when it's there it's there and they made it work.  Great team ball, better rebounding in the 2nd half, and POISE.  This is a team that knows how to win the close games - near-collapse last night notwithstanding. The powers that be would never let it happen, but the preconference "body of work" of CU and Sucks makes a good case for a two-bid Ivy this year.

Which I don't believe has ever happened, even when Penn and Princeton were both good. Tommy Amaker already has the wardrobe for national TV.

Maybe if Cornell beats Kansas, and then Harvard and Cornell both go 13-1 to force a play-off.

[Beeeej]

Wow.  Just, wow.

I'll read the rest of this thread tomorrow, but for now -

Wow.

[phillysportsfan]

The only way I see a 2 bid Ivy is if Cornell and Harvard finish their OOC games undefeated and win all Ivy games except close loses away at each other and then there is a close 1 game playoff

[JasonN95]

Here's ESPN's Andy Katz's tweet: "Great win for Cornell over St. John's at Madison Square Garden. In the right matchup, Cornell can advance a round in NCAAs."

[HeafDog]

Maybe if Cornell beats Kansas, and then Harvard and Cornell both go 13-1 to force a play-off.

Yes, and if pigs start doing international flights out of LaGuardia.

[Al DeFlorio]

Maybe if Cornell beats Kansas, and then Harvard and Cornell both go 13-1 to force a play-off.

Yes, and if pigs start doing international flights out of LaGuardia.

Yeah, but they'll crash into birds and wind up in the Hudson.

[ugarte]

Great game. The first half deficit was a product of St. John's shooting out of their minds from 3. They weren't shooting any better than we were, really, but it isn't typical of St. John's to shoot that well. As it was, even with the cold second half it was their best three point shooting game of the year. The great shooting in the first half by the Red Storm kind of won the game for us because they never really stopped shooting - even after it stopped being a good idea. They were able to get good dribble-penetration and were a good finishing team.

A lot of credit goes to Foote for adjusting over the course of the game. He started posting up more in the second half and his shooting was great. His interior defense was solid, especially positionally. 5 blocks, he was not getting posted up by shorter (but stronger) players, and nobody was able to pass through the lane. Jon Jacques had the game of his life. All that blogging for the New York Times prepared him for the spotlight at MSG, I guess. And a lot of credit should go to Chris Wroblewski; he handled the point for most of the game and did a great job bringing the ball up and distributing it around the perimeter. Even when Louis Dale wasn't obviously hurt, he was horrible last night. It looked like he was allergic to the basketball.

As for Ryan Wittman, he wasn't hot-and-cold so much as guarded or open. After hitting some shots early, it was clear that St. John's was forcing the ball away from Wittman. He looked like he was wearing a Red Storm jersey for most of the night.

Daily News coverage

This is a huge win. Cornell has wins over the SEC (Alabama), Big East (St. John's), A-10 (UMass, St. Joe's), MAC (Toledo), Southland (Davidson), Colonial (Drexel), America East (Vermont) and Patriot (Bucknell) conferences. Harvard adds the ACC (BC) and Conference USA (Rice) to the Ivy collection. This isn't going to be enough to make the Ivy League a two-bid conference, I don't think, but it will be a fun season.

[Al DeFlorio]

The only way I see a 2 bid Ivy is if Cornell and Harvard finish their OOC games undefeated and win all Ivy games except close loses away at each other and then there is a close 1 game playoff

Cornell now #20 in RPI according to: http://www.realtimerpi.com/rpi_Men.html
Wait till the Ivy schedule drags it down.

Harvard #34.

[Chris '03]

The only way I see a 2 bid Ivy is if Cornell and Harvard finish their OOC games undefeated and win all Ivy games except close loses away at each other and then there is a close 1 game playoff

Cornell now #20 in RPI according to: http://www.realtimerpi.com/rpi_Men.html
Wait till the Ivy schedule drags it down.

Harvard #34.

Looks like Kansas is the underdog at #25 :-P

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Maybe if Cornell beats Kansas, and then Harvard and Cornell both go 13-1 to force a play-off.

Yes, and if pigs start doing international flights out of LaGuardia.

Yeah, but they'll crash into birds and wind up in the Hudson.

Nah, pigs need a long runway.  Maybe JFK.

[Al DeFlorio]

The only way I see a 2 bid Ivy is if Cornell and Harvard finish their OOC games undefeated and win all Ivy games except close loses away at each other and then there is a close 1 game playoff

Cornell now #20 in RPI according to: http://www.realtimerpi.com/rpi_Men.html
Wait till the Ivy schedule drags it down.

Harvard #34.

Looks like Kansas is the underdog at #25 :-P

Shows what a lousy metric RPI is.

[jtwcornell91]

The only way I see a 2 bid Ivy is if Cornell and Harvard finish their OOC games undefeated and win all Ivy games except close loses away at each other and then there is a close 1 game playoff

Cornell now #20 in RPI according to: http://www.realtimerpi.com/rpi_Men.html
Wait till the Ivy schedule drags it down.

Harvard #34.

Looks like Kansas is the underdog at #25 :-P

Shows what a lousy metric RPI is.

Oh man, do I have to do a Bradley-Terry for basketball too? ::doh::

[dbilmes]

Does anyone know the last time (if ever) that Cornell defeated a Big East team?

I just answered my own question -- or at least the Daily News did:
"Cornell won its first Holiday Festival in four appearances and snapped a 41-game losing streak to Big East teams that dated back to before the conference was formed - a win over Villanova Dec. 30, 1969."